Wyoming 🤠

Not. Safe.

Real-world unsafe

“Work to turn it blue” 🙄.

You can enjoy the natural beauty and be a decent human being. That should be enough.

I can see needing a gun in rural Wyoming. Police are far away.

It will never turn blue, but I would suggest staying close to the Colorado border so you can still enjoy some of the benefits of a blue state. I used to work with someone who lived in Wyoming but commuted to work and party in Boulder.

You won't turn it blue. Such arrogance but go right ahead. The result should be interesting. Either you'll take to it, or flee screaming.

Arrogance, r6?

For god's sake, you all know what OP meant. He doesn't actually think he's going to singlehandedly turn the state blue. But if he and other educated people start moving to places like Wyoming instead of to Austin, Boulder, Minneapolis, etc., will that have a positive political effect? Yes.

I lived there for 4 months the summer after college — technically in Yellowstone National Park, but most of the park is inside of Wyoming. The northwest corner is the only part with scenery like OP's. The rest of the state looks more like below.

Cody has one must-see museum: The Buffalo Bill Center of the West with an excellent collection of cowboy and Plains Indian exhibits.

Montana, IMO, has the better small towns (Livingston, Cooke City, Bozeman, Gardiner). I did like the Wapiti area of Wyoming, but it's pretty sparse living — no neighbors for miles, real frontier living, and you sort of need 4WD. Yellowstone and Grand Teton are the definite highlights of WY.

[quote] ...work to turn it blue.

Note the "work" part. Not arrogant.

Laramie has the only 4-year college.

Laramie.

[quote]Arrogance, [R6]?

Yeah. I omitted cluessless stupidness though it was implied.

The most stupid people have to be the ones who think stupidness is a word.

Can we stop any further stupidity?

Move to Rapids City South Dakota. Black Hills, Custer National park, Mount Rushmore, Spearfish Canyon and Rapids City has a gay bookstore. Wooo hooo

You have NO idea how empty Wyoming is. EMPTY. As in driving on any back road highway and not seeing a soul in either direction for 20 minutes at a stretch empty. And yes, of all the rocky mountain states, it is the least scenic. It is grossly unfair that it has TWO senators, and a representative, giving it far more clout than its tiny population warrants. When you realize that the cowtown of Omaha Nebraska has more people than the entire state of Wyoming, that should give you some clue.

Someone on DL said it wouldn't take that many newcomers to turn the state. It's aging, and new families could transform the state for at least a couple decades.

Wyoming is among the fastest shrinking states. Under 600,000 residents.

And yet they have two senators. The smallest population. Just under Vermont.

5. Wyoming

1-yr pop. growth rate: -0.18%

Current population: 585,501

2015 population: 586,555

10-yr pop. growth rate: 12.02%

Wyoming was the only state to grow more from natural growth than the United States as whole in 2016 and still have population loss overall. There were 1,345 births and 857 deaths in the state in 2016 for every 100,000 residents, compared to the national rate of 1,286 births and 888 deaths per 100,000 Americans. Approximately 2,800 more new Wyomingites were born than died, which contributed more to Wyoming’s population growth than natural growth did in a majority of states.

Despite strong natural growth, heavy outbound migration led to negative population growth in Wyoming overall. Some 3,823 more residents moved out of Wyoming in 2016 than moved in, more than in any other state relative to population size.

In the late 90s, a lot of our John Birch (real Nazi) Californians started moving to the Mountain states -- Montana, Idaho, Wyoming.

They have the funds to keep those states red.

The University of Wyoming is in Laramie. Probably has excellent health insurance for its employees.

I can't think of a shittier state to live in.

R23, it's about service: helping others move there and starting a trend..

I'd move there, start a blog about a blue state person working on building a life there, and maybe an often-updated guide for Amazon. YouTube videos possibly, if I can get to be well-produced and appealing.

There are some new planned communities there.

I'd be happy to look into moving to Wyoming.

Horrible idea. I would suggest visiting there for a week. By the end of the week you’ll be wishing you had never gone there....that’s IF you even make it to the end of the week. Idiot.

Do they have Target at least?

I think all Wyoming has is a Dairy Queen.

In 2016 Trump got 174,248 votes, Hillary got 55,949 votes, so at least 120,000 progressives would need to move to Wyoming to have even a chance of flipping the state and for all that you win the grand total of 3 electoral college votes, not enough to change any recent election.

While I agree with your goal OP, progressives in blue states need to move to purple states with larger populations. Making NC, Arizona, Wisconsin or Florida permanently blue would be better.

R29, progressives? Or just Democrats?

Dick Cheney

Lynne Cheney

Liz Cheney

Enough, OP?

[quote]Rapids City

Oh, dear.

I live in the Denver area and have gone to Wyoming's annual pride party, which is a camping event called Rendezvous, for several years. If it didn't pull gays from the surrounding states, it would be a ghost town. It's miles from anywhere (to protect it from potential predators) and is hot during the day and can be bitterly cold at night -- in August. I went into Laramie once during the event and drove around. Just not much going on. Rendezvous can be fun if you want to get funky and slut around -- it typically pulls in about 400 people -- but I can't imagine actually living in Wyoming. You'll die of loneliness.

[quote] [R29], progressives? Or just Democrats?

Most people describe themselves as independents not Democrats or Republicans, you need the votes of those independents to win elections, so yes progressive independents and Democrats.

[quote]I used to work with someone who lived in Wyoming but commuted to work and party in Boulder.

I had friends who did the opposite: worked in Cheyenne but lived in Ft. Collins, CO. It was an hour commute each way. I can't imagine anyone commuting from Boulder to anywhere in Wyoming. It would be over 90 minutes each way to Cheyenne.

You'd have to be an introverted, lonely sort to want to live there, IMO. It's better than Idaho though. Montana is better than both.

Also, Montana actually is a purple state, or at least closer to it than the other two.

Everyone knows Montana is awesome. My classmate from high school is a professor in ... I don't remember, but one of the universities there. It's beautiful and he's in a liberal area.

It's interesting to read the different perspectives on this thread. Personally, I used to love the idea of Wyoming, but when I finally drove through on my way cross-country, a feeling of dread came over me. R18 is correct: there are stretches of highway that go on for what feels like 40 minutes, with nary a rest stop in sight. It's just you and the semi trucks out there. I stopped in Laramie for coffee, and it started hailing so hard that I feared damage to my car. It was strangely beautiful, but it impressed upon me that Mother Nature is not to be fucked with in the Northern Plains.

Finally, I couldn't help but notice when I started driving past the split-rail fencing in R2's photograph (it goes on for miles), because, yes, it made me think of Matthew Shepard.

OP, what is your social network like? Do you have a partner? Are you good at making friends in new places? I think any gay person should think carefully before moving to such a potentially lonely and harsh place.

OP, were you thinking of doing this solo? I honestly love the idea of getting a bunch of gays together and moving to a place like this. I'm at a crossroads in my life and need to make a huge change. I'm not sure I could ever *not* think about Matthew Shepard / Laramie though. I drove through Wyoming many years ago and remember open fields petting a horse. That's about it. I had no idea the population was only ~ 600K. Wow.

Someone mentioned upthread South Dakota. I know the Dakotas have increasing job opportunities and good cost of living (obviously). I'm in Minnesota and have only visited both briefly. A friend of mine recently posted photos from Montana and I was struck by the beauty. Beautiful hillsides, quaint. I would say that holds a lot more promise or appeal.

Didn’t Robert Duvall do the “Roam Free” ads with the wild horses to draw people. Must have worked think Bullock has a place there. Duvall I belive has a ranch/farm in Virginia so could not convince himself to roam free.

Much of the state (outside the area immediately next to the mountains) is flat, brown and drab. And the winters are long and COLD.

You would be better off trying to make Arizona, Texas, Georgia or North Carolina blue. IF you want a wilderness state, try Maine or New Hampshire, the only two NE states that lapse into Republicanism here and there.

The winters take it out of consideration for me.

Casper, Wyoming has the quickest and most efficient DMV I've ever been to!

I've thought about this myself. One of the things I worry about is good food and creature comforts. How's the Amazon Fresh coverage in Wyoming?

[quote]But if he and other educated people start moving to places like Wyoming instead of to Austin, Boulder, Minneapolis, etc., will that have a positive political effect? Yes.

I always find it funy when people make it sound so easy, even if people wanted to. Where are all these people supposed to work in these smalltowns? You need a real economy.

Most of the restaurant food in Wyoming is... lacking. To put a positive spin on it, they have good elk and bison steaks and burgers. Jackson Hole has some upscale places.

If you work in the tourism areas (mainly in and surrounding Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks) you will come into contact with a lot of people. Otherwise Wyoming could be a pretty lonely experience. Also extremely cold for months (50 below zero is not unheard of in Yellowstone). You would have to like cold, and be able to tolerate a lot of right-wing chatter.

Actually, Op's idea is not so far fetched. If crowd arrived about a month before an election and registered to vote and then did so they could swing the election. After the election they could simply move back to where they were from.

If we are doing a gay and lesbian airlift into Wyoming we need to think of practicalities. Perhaps self-employed professionals, people who work remotely and retirees can seed the community (I'm aware they'd be retiring to Wyoming). Then more service and health care workers can move in to cater to that population and more small businesses will crop up. Once we have young families there will be more of a need for educators. Perhaps Tom Steyer could fund the establishment of a private college that anchors this new LGBT utopia.

Really. We would only need to stay a few months until a day after the election.

R46 Fine, if you like to eat Bison.

RuPaul's husband has a ranch in Wyoming. So I guess it works for some people.

A gay person would die of loneliness and/or ennui in most parts of Wyoming. Best bet would be to live in Cheyenne, which is part of the Denver/front range extended metropolitan area. Cheyenne is about 115 miles from Denver, but only about 45 miles from Fort Collins, 90 miles from Boulder, etc. That way, you'd have an easy escape to a big city with bars, bathhouses, etc, and you could crawl home to your godforsaken Wyoming home without much trouble.. Likewise, you could live in the southwest corner, in Evanston, and be about 80 miles from Salt Lake City with similar big city opportunities. I'd avoid the north and central towns completely. When the nearest "big" city is some town in Montana of 15,000, you know you're in trouble.

Russians would like it.

I’ve always thought wealthy people (not billionaires, just low level wealthy) from blue states should buy trailers and change their residence before an election. That way they could keep their house back home and afford to make a quick address change to a low cost trailer

I am loving this idea. All of us retired eldergays should buy us a motor home and change our registration.

It's such a strange beautiful state and I've always had a fantasy about living in one of those small towns that looks like the set of a Western.

Make it count somewhere with more electoral votes and choose Arizona.

But we need to go after the senate. It would be so fun to watch the Cheney gal go down in Wyoming.

I want to move to ———.

What’s it like? I’ve never been there. But I have heard of it. Tell me, people, what is it like to live in this place. Idon’t want to look up anything about it, I just want you to tell me all about it.

They need a liberal anchor city with a hook like a huge university. Like Madison, WI.

Plains states are barely livable.

I went to visit family living in a small town there. It was ugly and desolate where they lived, and the water stunk like rotten eggs.

OP, how about Boise? Idaho borders Wyoming and has fantastic outdoor resources. It's also a Red state, but has a sizable Dem/Ind population. Boise has a something of a gay community and arts scene, and is growing fairly quickly. Seems like it might hit some of the qualities you're seeking in Wyoming without the downsides.

R66 is right. Boise is booming with people from California moving in.

Idahoans are triggered by the newcomers.

Don't you have to use dial up internet in Wyoming?

R68, you can always find a sensational news story, based on a kernel of truth but then amplified. I've always found city-data.com a good source of info about various localities, as there are mundane conversations but also thoughtful replies to people considering relocating.

Here's the forum for Boise. As you can see, there is some discussion of the CA influx, but it's hardly hugely resentful. The most common description of Idahoans is "friendly".

Are the men in Wyoming and/or Idaho very attractive?

Better move to Delaware

Move to Arizona. It’s closer to turning blue because of CA transplants who can’t afford CA anymore.

Wyoming, outside of Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Park(s), has pretty grim, drab scenery.

Well, we can all flock to Teton County and build up a gay and lesbian enclave there, then. Many states have a small number of heavily populated cities with desolate hinterlands.

Two votes in the Senate could be changed to Democrats by resettling only about 1.5% of the population of the LA area to it. Think about what could be done in this country if Republicans never hold the majority in the Senate again.

[quote] It would be so fun to watch the Cheney gal go down in Wyoming.

Ew. Not into lesbian porn.

Sounds ghastly!

You forgot about Mary Cheney, the bull dyke daughter were are NEVER to mention.

R75 is right. It's the smallest state, ripe for transformation by telecommuters, etc.

Basic considerations re moving to WY.

It sounds pretty great, actually.

Forgot the link.

Sounds like the back of beyond.

R1 it really ain’t.

Southern Utah is more beautiful.

Oh give me a home, where the corn-holers roam, where the fudgepackers and polesmokers play,,,,, where seldom is heard, an encouraging word, and the air if full of amyl all day!

Montana, Idaho, Wyoming should all be one state.

You bitches mocked the OP, but I bet y'all wish you were living in Wyoming right now. It's the only state that has not yet reported any deaths from COVID-19.

Can you move to Kentucky and help defeat McConnell please?!